December 31, 2014

Doug Bandow, The Huffington Post

The Obama administration hasn't had much foreign policy luck with the big issues: Islamic terrorism, Russian subversion of Ukraine, growing Chinese assertiveness, peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The jury is still out on Iran. President Barack Obama has made his greatest progress with two small countries, Burma and Cuba, by liberalizing relations.

The exchange of Alan Gross, a U.S. contractor and an American spy for three Cuban spies, offered obvious humanitarian benefits. There's always a danger in including someone like Gross in such an exchange, since it creates an incentive for other governments to set up innocent Americans for arrest to use as bargaining chips. But it's still a net positive.

The more significant step announced by the president was to drop what he called today's "outdated approach" to U.S.-Cuba relations which "has failed to advance our interests." His objective will be to expand travel and trade with Cuba and reopen the U.S. embassy in Havana....